Penumbral neutron imaging - Optimization and simulation

Abstract

This paper describes the optimization of the penumbral neutron imaging camera. The optimum parameters are qualified by practical considerations and the resulting camera is tested using a full Monte Carlo simulation. It is shown that an object emitting only 1.3×1010 neutrons/resolution element should be imageable. This result is confirmed by simulations of three different object shapes which indicate that the shape of the core of a compressed inertial confinement fusion pellet may be determined by this technique. It is further shown that these results correspond to the lowest possible imageable yield for any coded-aperture technique using the parameters assumed here. Finally, an alternative aperture and detector arrangement is briefly described which may lower the imageable yield by more than an order of magnitude. Show more